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Yorkshire Post Excellence in Business Awards 2008: Spin-out company at the forefront of computer-based drug testing
MINIMISING unnecessary drug exposure to human volunteers and animals is at the heart of university spin-out company Simcyp.
The Sheffield firm, which specialises in simulating the way new drugs are absorbed and react within the body in the safety of a computer, won Innovation of the Year at the Yorkshire Post Excellence in Business Awards 2008.
Executive director Dr Steve Toon said afterwards: "It's great, very satisfying. We have grown over 50 per cent in the last year. In the first few years it took time for other people to understand what we do but now we are growing very fast. I wouldn't be surprised if we doubled in size in the next few years."
Simcyp was founded in 2001 by Professor Geoff Tucker, Professor Amin Rostami-Hodjegan and John Evans as a spin-out company from Sheffield University.
Simcyp's clients form a consortium and license the company's flagship product – the Simcyp population-based ADME simulator.
There are currently 20 members of the consortium, which include many of the major global pharmaceutical and bioscience companies.
Simcyp maintains strong academic links and its science team conducts internationally recognised research and development. In addition, it offers consultancy services and runs education programmes around the world.
This year, Simcyp, which employs 34 people, achieved annual sales of 3m – an increase of 56 per cent on the previous year.
The simulator allows scientists to understand how candidate compounds are absorbed, distributed, metabolised, and excreted by the human body
This enables individuals at extreme risk from adverse reaction to be identified, and unnecessary drug exposure to human volunteers and animals to be minimised.
The limitations of candidate compounds, including potential drug-drug interactions, can be assessed and managed prior to human studies, allowing better focus of drug development resources.
A second innovation, the Simcyp Paediatric simulator, was launched earlier this year. It has been developed over a number of years by Dr Trevor Johnson, principal scientist at Simcyp and senior pharmacist at Sheffield Children's Hospital, and other members of the Simcyp team.
It is estimated that over 50 per cent of medicines currently used in children have not been officially tested in this age group and the paediatric simulator allows drug companies to evaluate suitable doses of medicines for children, from birth onwards, through the safety of a computer.
Modelling and simulation using Simcyp Paediatric can negate the need for some real-life studies in children, circumventing many of the ethical and practical issues that arise when pharmaceutical companies conduct clinical trials in young subjects.
Using Simcyp simulations, essential studies can be identified and the design of those investigations optimised. In addition, simulations provide key information for dosing decisions which also helps to minimise unnecessary drug exposure to children.
Simcyp Paediatric has already been taken up by major pharmaceutical companies within the Simcyp consortium who are currently evaluating it.
The simulator is also being used by some of the top institutes for paediatric drug development research, including the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and Hpital Cochin Saint-Vincent-de-Paul in Paris.
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